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One of the Boomerang generation explains why he came home

The author and staple of the Anderson High School football bench (middle) pictured with parents Bob Sr. and Jennifer at the AHS senior game in 2003. Courtesy of the Strickley family archive AKA an IBM Aptiva.(Photo: Provided)

From time to time, members of The Enquirer staff will write personal essays to give you a sense of the journalists who bring you the news. The first is from Bob Strickley, daily news coach and leader of our team devoted to creating news delivered to mobile devices.

Boomerang: A bent or angular throwing club typically flat on one side and rounded on the other so that it soars or curves in flight; especially one designed to return near the thrower – Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Cincinnati threw this Anderson graduate out in 2004 only to see me return in 2015. In that regard, I'm not particularly special. In fact, my two older siblings were similarly returned to sender.

Several friends and coworkers have comparable stories of living away from Cincinnati for a time only to relent to the gravitational pull of the Queen City. In my case, I went away to college (well, as away as Ohio State really can be) and made a series of career-related moves to Massachusetts, Portsmouth, Ohio, and suburban St. Louis before landing back in the Tristate about 11 years later.

Under no illusions that my situation is special or that my other roosts were particularly unique, I gained useful perspective while living away about what was remarkable about Cincinnati and also what was worth fighting to fix. While on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, the night of Nov. 24, 2014, I reported on the situation spinning into (more) chaos as St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch announced a grand jury would not indict Darren Wilson in connection with the death of Michael Brown.

Nov. 24, 2014: The night St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch announced a grand jury would not indict Darren Wilson.(Photo: Bob Strickley)

I wager there weren't many journalists on the ground that night having thoughts of Cincinnati in 2001. There was at least one. Despite being so many years removed from those events, I was reminded of the measures taken in Cincinnati since 2001 and the problems the city was striving to fix.

On one of the walls of The Enquirer newsroom elevator lobby, opposite the naked pressman image (no one can explain his lack of clothing, but, hey, if you have glutes like that after almost 176 years, flaunt 'em), is the sentence, "The Enquirer is dedicated to making people's lives better."

There's this swell of momentum carrying Cincinnati to heights not thought possible 10 or 15 years ago. We aren't nearing utopian status. Not even close. But I consider myself extremely lucky to get to, in some small way, contribute to the tangible success of this place. It's our job to shine a light on obstacles to our continued improvement.

Bob Strickley.(Photo: The Enquirer/Carrie Cochran)

My coworker Kevin Grasha, who is as good a journalist as you will find and a fellow Cincinnati boomeranger, had this to say about returning:

"I grew up in Cincinnati, but my post-college travels took me to New York City, Cleveland, back to the New York City area, then Chicago, then Lansing, Michigan, where I worked for a decade," he said. "The opportunity to work in my hometown, for a newspaper I grew up reading was a major factor in my return.

"There’s extra incentive to make sure the systems I cover function fairly and properly. Also, it’s more likely I will know how to get somewhere."

I think Kevin would agree it wasn't as though things were suddenly more important when we returned home. It's more that the volume was turned up once we were back. When we ask difficult questions, we know people will openly wonder why at the dinner table. You are why. And, using all the tools in our repertoire, we will point out when course corrections are needed to keep this good thing going.

Anyone working in media now faces a set of challenges rarely seen, and those in Cincinnati are no different. In that way, those of us who have boomeranged home have returned to something completely new. We are up for the challenge. We are home.